Henchman

Contents

General

Henchmen (also known as "Henchies" or "Hench") are computer-controlled characters that you may elect to enlist in your party once you've left Pre-Searing Ascalon, or after completion/skipping of the tutorial in Factions or Nightfall. Their skills, attributes, and levels will change as you progress through the campaigns. It does not cost anything to hire them. Henchmen can be invited in a way similar to inviting other players and are automatically added to the party.

Henchmen count as party members and thus, claim their share of the party's loot and experience (although they will not gain levels). Loot that gets assigned to henchmen is never shown; they are simply removed instead of visibly dropping. Each henchman has an equal chance of getting a particular piece of loot, as if they are normal players.

In general, all henchmen will target and attack whichever target the party leader is targeting. Henchmen will also automatically target an enemy (usually the closest or weakest) if a party member gets attacked.

Henchmen Progression

The level of a henchman depends on the outpost in which they are hired. For instance, all henchmen in Sardelac Sanitarium are always level 3, and those in Piken Square are always level 6. Henchmen levels are reset each time the player enters a town. For example, Stefan, who is L6 in Piken will revert to L3 upon entering the Sanitarium.

In Hard Mode, all henchmen are level 20.

What follows is an outline of henchman level progression through the game.

Eye of the North Expansion

Level 20: All locations

Controlling Henchmen

Henchmen are often claimed to be very bad or even harmful party members. Many players struggle to form parties of completely random players even for hard missions just to avoid using henchmen. However a player with lots of experience on playing with henchmen will be able to complete any mission and bonus with henchmen and possibly a friend or two. You just need to know how henchmen react to your actions. Most players do not understand how the henchmen AI works and they act so that the henchmen do things not wanted by the players. Here are some tips on effectively controlling the henchmen.

Attacking

If they are within range, and have nothing better to do, your healing henchmen will also attack. However, they will not move to get into range to attack, even if completely idle.

You can easily have the henchmen attack your target by simply attacking and possibly also calling the target. You can also encourage the henchmen to attack without attacking yourself by using CTRL+SHIFT+Space. This works out to about 1.5 aggro bubble range. Any further, and your henchmen will start charging, then turn around and return to you because of the distance.

If you try to pull the enemy mob to you by attacking them with a ranged attack your henchmen will attack the mob and spoil the pull. You need to pull by aggroing the enemy mob and moving back to the spot where you want to fight, then attack to send the henchmen to the fight.

An alternative method to pull is to fire a longbow or flatbow at your intended target. During the firing animation, turn the camera around and begin to run away. As soon as you fire your shot, you should be running away from the enemy with the henchmen "retreating" with you. However, note that any melee henchmen will run forward to the enemy before turning to follow you. In close situations this might cause aggroing of multiple mobs.

To cancel henchmen's attacks, one method is to quickly plot the main flag to a location (optimally away from aggro range), upon which the henchman will disengage any spells or actions to move to the plotted position. Unless fleeing, doing this mid-battle is not recommended as the henchmen will not stop to heal or heal others, blindly marching towards the plotted main flag. They will not perform any skills until they have reached the flag.

Moving

Henchmen will follow you soon after you begin running away from the enemy.

Having the henchmen retreat from a fight is fairly easy. Have all your players run away from the enemy not using any attacks or attack skills. The henchmen will follow soon, but not as soon as you probably would like.

If you don't attack a mob and run past it the henchmen will follow you without fighting.

Henchmen will divide into groups to follow different players.

When your group needs to divide henchmen will often divide into smaller groups following different players. They will often divide according to their profession (e.g., all monks will follow the same player).

If any players are moving and others are not, the henchmen will attempt to follow the moving players, leaving the stationary ones, even if the stationary is currently engaged in battle.

If one of the party members needs to separate from the group to move alone without henchmen the others can prevent the henchmen from following that single player. Players may continuously make small movements to draw the henchmen towards them, allowing the lone player to alternate between moving and standing to break away. This can be useful for pulling enemies, allowing the lone player to draw aggro without the henchmen rushing in prematurely.

Henchmen will follow your party closely, staying near each other when you aren't fighting. They will fall into formation if there is room; warriors in front, casters at the rear.

It is pretty easy to avoid enemy groups as the henchmen will follow you. Beware moving too fast when going around enemies. If the henchmen are too far, they will use the shortest route, which will take them into the enemy group between you and them.

It is very hard to get rid of disease or miasma after combat. The henchmen stay near each other and spread the disease to those who get rid of it. The henchmen might spread a little if you move correctly.

Directing Movement

Players have the ability to direct henchmen towards a particular location, using a "flag" button on the compass. Once activated, henchmen will try to reach this location, will not fight along the way if engaged, but they will defend that location until the flag is removed. This is very useful when you need the henchmen to go one way while you go another - such as when going back to retrieve mission bundles or NPCs, or moving ahead to scout.

Another good tactic is to make them wait a slightly behind your position, allowing you to pull more effectively.

When in a party with other players and henchmen, this feature can effectively split the party in two - useful when you need to engage the enemies at two fronts. Note that the party leader is the only one who can control henchmen.

You can actually split a party with heroes and henchmen in two. To do so:

Henchmen will now stay with the main flag, but heroes will follow you.

Note, though, that if you die while far from your henchmen, they will not move to resurrect you and you may end up getting stuck.

However, if you have died with henchmen plotted far from your corpse, you may simply plot the main flag on your body to get the henchmen to return to you (or just cancel the main flag, having the henchmen approach your position automatically). An alternative method to avoid the pathing issue detailed in the next bullet is to click on one of the henchmen's names in the party window to change to camera to follow the selected henchman. From here, you can plot manually move the flag in a desired path back to your fallen body in order to trigger a resurrection skill.

Henchmen have some pathing issues. If you move very, very far away from their "flag" and then cancel it, they will take the shortest path to return to your location, and may get stuck in the process.

The use of the main flag to lead henchmen into other zones (such as a different explorable area or an entrance to a town) will not cause the party to enter the other zone. Instead, the henchmen will be teleported back to the controlling player.

Using the "flag" button heroes can be moved separately from each-other but henchmen only move when a command is issued for all NPCs.

Heroes will always obey individual orders over the "main" flag.

Example: If a hero flag is placed to the West and the main flag is planted to the East, the hero will go West while all the other henchmen/heroes will go to the main flag.

Flags can be plotted on the immediately visible terrain on screen, on the compass, or on the mission map.

Note: If henchman are flagged on the minimap to a far away area, they will attempt to reach that area. Sometimes they are successful, other times they will get stuck on terrain.

If they are successful, you can flag them to an area and autofollow them there, to avoid running there yourself.

If you are dead and a resurrection shrine is nearby consider opening the mission map and making them run to the resurrection shrine.

Note: If you forget to remove a flag before resurrecting at a resurrection shrine your henchmen will immediately start to run to the flag, possibly aggroing a lot of enemies.

Resurrection

Henchmen will resurrect fallen allies both in and out of battle.

They will now use their resurrection skills from range, rather than running on top of the fallen ally first.

In battle, they will favor resurrection signets. Monks will only attempt to use a multi-use resurrect in combat if they are the only ones left standing.

Henchmen prioritize resurrection targets in the following order, assuming that the corpses are nearby:

Any human player with a multi-use resurrection spell

Any henchman with a multi-use resurrection spell

Any human player with a resurrection signet

Any henchman with a signet

Any human player

Any henchman

Emotes

While in an explorable area and not in combat, performing emotes will cause the henchmen in your party to form a circle around you and perform emotes of their own. For example, the /dance emote causes the henchmen to either dance or 'play' an instrument. Some of them have a dance animation that does not match their primary profession. See each henchman article for details.